These Splendid Melodies
by a fool's life
Summary: The storm has broken and the winds are changing, and Tina Carter grips her Innocence, poised and ready to fight. Things aren't over by a long shot, and sometimes, one must fall in order to fly.


**Warnings:** The story will be O.C. heavy. I will attempt to make this character as un-Sueish as I possibly can, but the fact remains that most (if not all) of the altercations I have made to the original plot line stem from the character I have introduced to into the story. If you are a person who can't stomach heavy amounts of an O.C. in a story, than I apologize, because I don't think you will enjoy this story.

This is totally not related to anything I should be writing at the moment. However, I'm currently some thousands words into it and don't seem to be stopping, so I'm venturing to post. That said, expect extremely sporadic updates. This is my guilty pleasure story, which I work on when I can't manage anything else.

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**Chapter 1: One Plus One**

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Christina Carter ("Tina, just Tina, please." She would insist, almost desperately. It was almost strange, to hear one express such dislike of her full name. "Christina is too mouthful." She would say as if noticing herself had just lost control over something so trivial. But who were they to judge.) was no exceptional beauty.

She wasn't the sweet, gentle girl with golden curls over here slender shoulder. She wasn't the wicked temptress in black dress and deceptively innocent white lace lying over her sensual skin, a dangerous smirk on her red lips. She wasn't even the tragic heroine, eyes with fire flashing defiantly in the face of her enemies, grim face still breathtaking despite being covered in sweat and dirt and blood, and still very much capable of bringing grown men to her knees in her kindness.

No, Tina Carter was none of these things. She was, in her own words, and the words of many others, a 'plain type'. She was 5 foot 3 inches in height, as matron gleefully told her after her latest general check-up ("Oh my god, you've grown!"), with cold grey eyes and skins that tended to burn. Her mouth, consisted of two, slightly darkened pink lips that darkened even more when she worried her lower one between her teeth (a childhood habit that she was determined to get rid of. She had bitten her lips instead of her nails, and when winter came, it hurts like hell.) Her - admittedly - straight hair was in a brown shade that tended to flicker with red in the right lights if someone paid enough attention to notice (but no one ever did). She was a thin thing, with small shoulders, delicate-looking neck, and callous hands for swinging weapons too much.

She twisted to left and regarded herself in the glass.

No.

To right.

Also no.

Sighing at her extreme misfortune, Tina pushed the white black coat over her slim shoulder.

"I look ridiculous." She stated. "I can't wear my uniform properly because I have a wound on the ribs. I'm going to meet the new exorcist at breakfast and I look ridiculous."

She moaned.

"Maybe I should stay in bed." She muttered. "It's just a new kid, we will eventually meet each other in some missions anyway. There are only twenty something exorcists-"

"_The new guy fought Kanda right after his arrival? And Kanda couldn't beat him up? Oh my god, Lenalee it's the best news I've heard this week!" She almost jumped out of her bed, if the head nurse had been glaring at her outburst. "I wish I could have seen it." _

_Lenalee smiled. _

"_If my brother hadn't forgotten about General Cross's letter, the whole thing wouldn't have happened. Allen has just come to the Order, and we couldn't give him a warm welcome -"_

"_Cross? You're telling me General Cross really adopted a student?" _

With a final, frustrated snort, Tina decided to exit the room, because even the wounded needed to eat.

Of course, there were some rules she had set to herself.

Firstly, she would absolutely not sneer at Kanda's face at breakfast, even if his mere appearance could ruin her appetite. He had a pretty face after all, and Christina - at the age of 16 - really appreciated of beauty.

Secondly, she wasn't going to tell the new kid how much he 'would belong' at the Order, or how much he 'deserves' to go there, because she was to be completely honest (and Tina really did pride herself on that), those two decisions were entirely up to the boy. This was his choice, and she would not come waltzing into tell him who he should and should not be friends within this order (but knowing what kind of the first impression Kanda usually left on people, perhaps he wouldn't mind her being petty).

Thirdly, she was going to give Jerry tons of compliments after having to eat healthy and balanced food in the infirmary.

The problem with in Black Order was that when of the newcomers casually walked along the hall to head to their wanted destination, the seemingly endless hall tended to make them desperate to figure out the direction. Usually, this meant seeking out a former member, and bugging the more informed individual to show them the right way, and where lead to where and where to avoid (although, that could easily be looked up in the Order Guide by Reever, but no one ever seemed to remember such thing existed, save for a few level-headed Finders). The aforementioned confusion over the complicated directions had been the causes of people ending up in the place they hadn't wanted (for example, seeing Supervisor Komui laugh maniacally at his new invention, or walking in two people making out, whatever), or had no clue of what they were doing (one example of the year that Christina Carter had ended up in the darkest corner of research lab, and had to run for her life because of some machines. Later, she was told it was a normal happening, but to her defense, she was only 13 at that time and was so ushered herself into that glorious age where she wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow her whole, so she screamed)

However, it was like a curse, because Tina, unfortunately for her, was not really observant. Of course, it was impossible to get lost on the way to cafeteria like four years ago, but when one was finally at home after some horrendous accident, it was not difficult to ignore their surroundings. So, she just moseyed along to whatever it was that she was supposed to be at her own pace, often making some people wait for her or raise their eyebrows at her. It wasn't out of any ill intention, or some egotistical belief that she was better than others (but people tend to say Exorcists were the blessed Apostles of God, so they thought it all the same), Tina just liked to move at her own pace when she was not out there slashing evil machines trying to kill the innocent, and enjoy the world in her rare moments of peace, not rush through it like everyone else she knew (no one knew how much time they had in this career, so they wanted to see as much life as possible, it was a reasonable sentiment, after all). She enjoyed the feeling of doing things at her own pace, lost in her own thoughts and own ideas, and conversing with her black winged golem that had taken to following her around.

Golem, as Tina learned, made excellent listeners.

As cliche as it got, Tina received the shock of her life when someone crashed in her.

Her ribs.

Tina winced at the feel of her ribs protesting.

"I'm sorry!" The boy quickly. And the yellow golem behind him made an expression kinda shock. "Are- are you alright?"

When she took a closer look at her assailant, she could see he had white hair, pale skin, and grey eyes, and something looked like scars on his face (Red marks? She had to wonder). The thought "Why does he have white hair when looking so young?" flashed over her head for a second, before she asked.

"Why are you running?"

"Er- I was late for breakfast."

"You're going in the opposite direction."

Silence.

Tina sighed. "Follow me, I'm heading to cafeteria too."

At that, the boy turned to her with a hopeful expression and uttered those fateful words:

"Really? Good grief! My name is Allen Walker, a new exorcist coming here yesterday!"

And invisible to everyone, the threads of Fate connecting them solifidied with a snap.

And, invisible to everyone but the Winged Kuriboh hovering by Jaden's shoulder, the threads of Fate connecting the two solidified with a snap.

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"_It's within the nature of humanity. They all tend to gravitate towards the things in this world gathered under the much-abused label of 'The Best''. The flick of the wrist. The snap of the pend. The sound of fluttering papers. _

"_But it's also within the nature of humanity that no one will ever obtain perfection."_

"_Does that ever stop them from aiming for the closest thing there is?" _

"_And what is that thing? Crystal of God or the wailing souls of humans?"_

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Author's note: Don't worry, Tina will show you her Innocence.


End file.
